Tehelka sexual assault case: Incident happened once, not twice - Tarun Tejpal's lawyer

A Goa police team questioned Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury for several hours at her southeast Delhi office on Saturday in connection with the rape case filed against the magazine’s editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal by a junior colleague.

Another police team from Goa is expected to be in Mumbai on Sunday to meet the victim.

The team in Delhi is yet to question Tejpal. His defence counsel Rajan Karanjawala said they would cooperate with the police at all levels. Karanjawala said Tejpal is present in Delhi, will not go anywhere and will face the case.

“You will get to know our strategy in court. We are reviewing the contents of the FIR. What happened in Goa was consensual and happened only once and not twice as alleged,” said Karanjawala.

The victim had alleged that Tejpal molested her twice during the magazine’s annual event Think Fest in Goa earlier this month. She made a complaint in an email to Chaudhury on Monday, but has not filed a case so far.

On Saturday, the victim issued a statement to the media, saying she is being intimidated by Tejpal’s family. One of Tejpal’s family members visited her house and asked her mother to protect the editor-in-chief, she said.

The three-member Goa police team, including a woman officer, reached the capital around noon. After meeting Delhi police officials, around 4:45pm, the team reached Tehelka’s office in Greater Kailash-II.

Chaudhury had reached the office around 3:20pm.

Tehelka issued a statement, saying “It has shared all documents requested by the Goa police and would continue to assist with the investigations.”

The Goa police also asked Chaudhury to hand over the laptop and the hard disk of the computers in office and the iPad used for communication after the incident this month. Later in the evening, senior crime branch officials from Delhi police also visited Tehelka’s office when the Goan police were questioning the staff members .

Earlier during the day, the Goa police had said that no CCTV camera was installed inside the hotel elevator, where Tejpal had allegedly sexually assaulted the girl.

Investigators are examining the footages of CCTVs installed in the lobby and areas around the elevator. “No specific CCTV camera was installed in the elevator,” O P Mishra, who is leading the Goa team, said.

Tejpal, in a statement released on Friday, had requested investigators to “examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed”.

On Saturday, the Jangpura residence of Tejpal was flocked by his relatives and friends. None of the family members of Tejpal interacted with media persons camping outside his house.

The Goan police team was at Tehelka office till late night, flanked by few officials from Delhi police.

Police officials said, after questioning Shoma, they would take up the questioning of Tejpal and would seek to meet the victim.